If You Ever want to Empty a Commercial Airliner REALLY Fast

Day 1. Wild 9. Merida, Mexico. Nov 6, 2009

So if you ever want to see a completely full airliner disgorge it's passengers in less than 10 minutes, just have the Captain announce in a rather urgent tone that El Presidente Felipe Calderon is arriving momentarily right behind us and that if we don't ALL debark post haste, we will be stuck in the plane - on the tarmac - until they have cleared all areas for his landing and made sure security precautions were properly in place for his safety and exit. A possible delay of up to an hour........

A thundering but fairly agile herd of water buffalo comes to mind - but with less courtesy and decorum. Needless to say, we got off in record time. And once we all knew we were safe and sound inside the airport, it became clear that many of us were here for Wild 9 - as was Presidente Calderon! How cool is that? The President of Mexico showing up for the opening of a conference on conservation and wilderness protection.

The first day of the conference was primarily devoted to setting the stage for the rest of the week, with a number of international dignitaries and conservation leaders articulating the global vision for wilderness protection and citing concrete examples and programs in action all around the globe. But really, the highlight for me was to see the buzz about town - it was exciting to see the painted jaguar statues starting at the airport and then all about town - an arts and culture project to support the Wilderness Congress. Also to be witness to the excitement of having the President arrive to take part in the opening ceremonies.

The evening of this first day was spent, predictably, in the hotel lounge with many of the attendees catching up on current projects, networking, discussing hot conservation issues and in general, just having a great time seeing lots of familiar faces from iLCP, NANPA and beyond.

Adios. Tomorrow is another day.

Linda Helm
VP

A Climate for Life

Fine Print Imaging and Art For Conservation are excited and honored to be working on the production of a traveling exhibit of images from the new book A Climate For Life: Meeting the Global Challenge . Sponsored by the Dean Witter Foundation, the exhibit will open in January, 2009 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

"A CLIMATE FOR LIFE: Meeting the Global Challenge examines the impact of climate change on biodiversity and focuses on the most important challenges currently facing life on our planet.
With a foreword co-authored by eminent Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson and actor Harrison Ford, and a comprehensive introduction by Conservation International scientists led by president Russ Mittermeier, A CLIMATE FOR LIFE examines the enormous impact of climate change on biodiversity and focuses on how nature itself might provide some of the solutions to this challenge.

A lavishly produced volume, CLIMATE FOR LIFE celebrates the diversity of life on earth, and is a call to action and a blueprint to preserve it. With additional text throughout written collaboratively by leading Conservation International scientists, a nonprofit organization that applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's biodiversity around the world. the book’s ten chapters cover the most important and urgent issues concerning climate change and biodiversity today.

From intense pressure on already stressed flora and fauna, to the implications of polar meltdown, the book explores the effects of rising temperatures on both the land and in oceans across the globe. That said, the book is not all doom and gloom as A CLIMATE FOR LIFE also examines potential and practical solutions and devotes a number of chapters to exploring existing answers. Illustrated with over 175 photographs by esteemed members of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a nonprofit organization that uses the power of photography to help educate the world and to further conservation goals, A CLIMATE FOR LIFE features images from world-class talents including noted wildlife photographer Frans Lanting, glacier photographer James Balog, and endangered species photographer Joel Sartore.

The book includes eleven photography "features" in which the photographers, as eyewitnesses in the field, are interviewed about their first-hand experiences recording the effects of climate change on the environment. Frans Lanting reports in the book that after photographing the same spot in Africa that was shot 100 years ago “…it’s one of those rare instances where you can see extinction in progress before your eyes.”

Powerfully combining both images and offerings, A CLIMATE FOR LIFE, is the result of leading scientists and veteran photographers contributing their talents to showcase the topics, issues, and challenges that society must urgently face, and the book’s lasting impression is that ultimately the responsibility is literally and figuratively in our hands."

Watch A Climate for Life Multimedia piece HERE!

Mark Lukes to give presentation on the work of ILCP

Photographs That Tell the Conservation Story

A presentation by Mark Lukes on the International League of Conservation Photographers at The Center for Fine Art Photography

“The concept of conservation photography has been proposed out of the need to make a distinction between the creation of images for the sake of photography and the creation of images to serve the purpose of conserving nature,” said Cristina Mittermeier, founder and executive director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).

Conservation photography is born out of purpose. Rather than simply showing us the beauty of nature – which it can do - its mission is to protect nature.

Join Mark Lukes, ILCP Executive Committee member, president of Art for Conservation and Fine Print Imaging, on Tuesday, November 18, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m., for an evening of conservation imagery and the stories behind the images.

Lukes will share images of ILCP and National Geographic photographers like Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, Florian Schulz, Joel Sartore, Beverly Joubert and many others.

The Center for Fine Art Photography is currently hosting an Exhibit entitled “Our Environment; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. There is an additional display of images from internationally renowned ILCP photographers in the South Gallery.

Voices Behind the Camera - ILCP Photographer Cristina Mittermeier

Please meet a fearless woman, wonderful photographer and a true friend of the earth and all of it's peoples :

CRISTINA GOETTSCH MITTERMEIER
The relationship between nature and humans is where Cristina Mittermeier’s photography finds its true mission. The idea that people and nature are not isolated from each other, but are inexorably connected, lies at the heart of her work. This relationship is particularly poignant when it comes to indigenous people and this where Cristina’s images truly shine. Her work has taken her to 54 countries, including some of the most remote and beautiful areas of our planet.

As a photographer since 1996, Cristina has help produce 8 books, including a series published with Conservation International and Cemex. Megadiversity: Earth's Wealthiest Countries for Biodiversity (1996), Hotspots: Earth's biologically richest and most endangered ecoregions (1998), Wilderness Areas: Earth's Last Wild Places (2002), Wildlife Spectacles (2003), Hotspots Revisited (2005), and Transboundary Conservation: A New Vision for Protected Areas (2005), and Pantanal: South America’s Wetland Jewel (2005) are all part of that series.

Her latest book project, The Human Footprint, was produced with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York in conjunction with her own organization, the ILCP. Cristina serves as Executive Director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), a prestigious group of photographers which she founded in 2005.

From the popular to the scientific, her work has appeared in major magazines around the world including Nature's Best, Latina, Elan, National Geographic, National Geographic Explorer and American Photo in the United States, Rumbos, Escala and Sale la Foto, in Mexico, Explorador and Terra in Brazil, Man and Biosphere in China, among others.Cristina serves in the Advisory Board of Nature's Best Foundation and is a Board Member of the WILD Foundation.
Visit Cristina's Website

Cristina's images may be purchased at Digital Railroad or Fine Print Imaging

Listen now to the voice behind the camera of Cristina Mittermeier: